Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image capturing apparatus, a method of controlling the same, a monitoring camera system, and a storage medium and, more particularly, to a monitoring technique of detecting an object or obtaining detailed information by monitoring.
Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, monitoring cameras are arranged at various points of a store or parking area or on a fence surrounding a specific building to monitor a theft or illegal act in the store or parking area or monitor an intrusion of a third party from outside.
In the monitoring camera system, needs have grown for a system that automatically measures and analyzes human activities to more efficiently conduct disaster prevention, monitoring, and management and administration in a public or leisure facility. For example, a partial operation amount in a facility or a facility use state is grasped from information representing how many visitors are currently going in and out of the facility and how fast they are moving in which direction. It is also possible to predict a congestion state around an observation area and obtain information to guide a crowd in a direction to avoid the congestion.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-123935 describes a method of stably counting persons or the like on a direction basis even in a situation where, for example, walkers who gather and separate at an entrance are moving in indefinite directions. Also described is using, as a count line, a curve according to the distortion of a lens, which is a curve on the screen but changes to a straight line when projected onto the floor surface in the captured real space, in a case where distortion occurs in the peripheral portion of a video because of use of a wide angle lens or the like.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 06-223157 describes setting a virtual gate on an observed image by image processing, and detecting a moving object without impeding its natural flow when the traffic line or projected figure of the moving object moves across the virtual gate.
However, in these conventional techniques, when an object passes near a passage detection line, it may cross the passage detection line depending on its size (height), resulting in a detection error.
An omnidirectional camera using a fish-eye lens can shoot a relatively wide range, and is therefore effective to monitor a wide space looked down from above. However, when capturing a relatively narrow space in, for example, a small store by the omnidirectional camera, the size of an object cannot be neglected. When an object passes near the passage detection line, it may partially cross the passage detection line, and a detection error may occur.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-described problems, and provides a technique of reducing detection errors and implementing stable passage detection even in a case where an object passes near a passage detection line.